(South Australia, February 2022) – Lions Clubs International, the largest service club organization in the world, has presented the City of Adelaide Lions Club with the Kindness Matters Service Award.
This year, only 30 out of 48,000 Lions clubs received this prestigious award, which is given annually to Lions and Leo clubs for performing an outstanding service project in one of Lions Clubs International’s global cause areas: diabetes, hunger, vision, environment, childhood cancer, humanitarian, disaster relief or youth.
“The Kindness Matters Service Award is a challenge for Lions and Leos to develop exceptionally innovative and creative service projects with the aim of leaving a positive impact in their communities,” said Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Dr. Jung Yul Choi.
“When caring people join together, roll up their sleeves and take action to make their community better, it’s a beautiful thing—and an incredible feeling for everyone involved. It is that care and commitment to service is what it means to be a Lion.”
“This is a well-deserved honour for the City of Adelaide Lions Club, as it is a great project answering multiple needs of their community” remarked South Australia’s District 201C1 Governor, John Barnes
He continued by congratulating the Club and pointing out “how great the award is, when you consider there are some 45,000 Clubs internationally and only thirty one (31) clubs get chosen annually to win this prestigious award.”
He said, “Just as important, is this project bringing the club’s members together along with members from other clubs in North Adelaide to sew, bag books and other tasks – and all the while they are having an absolutely marvellous time sharing fellowship, a shared sense of community and … a little bit of joviality. Oh, a lot of joviality. And that is what Lions is all about exemplified by our motto “We Serve”.”
“The Hear Me Roar! Project was founded by our club in 2016 Hear Me Roar project coordinator Petrea Stacey said.
“It started by creating care packs and making multi-purpose heart shaped cushions for both adult and child patients in hospitals.
“It quickly grew to include making port pillows (small rectangular cushions that attach to seat belts to provide cushioning to the chest and/or abdominal area for people with port/incision/surgical/trauma sites),” Petrea said proudly.
“We added personality cushions (round cushions with different faces) for children in hospital going through cancer treatment or craniofacial surgeries.
“Our cushions were then also made for disadvantaged and vulnerable youth (0-18years) in various organisations and foster care.
“The project has expanded to include making scrunchies, baby bibs and more for these children also.”
In 2018, the project started another initiative, sorting and labelling children’s books, and packing them into age-appropriate book bags for distribution.
“Youth literacy is a big problem and every child should have access to books. So, these book bags are distributed to disadvantaged and vulnerable youth across South Australia,” Petrea said.
“Up until now, the project has supported over 7700 individuals across SA.”
Petrea said the project has developed into a true Lions team effort with at least six other clubs giving their support, including the Adelaide Hellenic Lions Club.
“This project brings Lions, families and friends together to work together in a social environment while being hands on, and making a difference to so many in the community,” Petrea said.
“The project is unique in that it doesn’t focus on one group or one initiative, and the support provided to the community is widespread.
“Since the project started, we have delivered 850 care packs, 1,144 adult cushions, 1,828 kids cushions, 840 port pillows, 2,074 bags of books (4 books in each), and 1,011 misc. items (such as bibs, scrunchies, dressing gowns, sanitary items etc.), with hundreds more currently being made and/or about to be delivered,” she added.
FOOTNOTE: The Kindness Matters Service Award is designed for clubs who create high-impact service projects within one of the Lions International and Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) cause areas, including diabetes, childhood cancer, environment, hunger, vision, disaster relief, youth or humanitarian.
Overall objectives include:
Encouraging creativity and recognizing high-impact service projects
Rewarding clubs for high-calibre service activities within each of Lions International’s causes.
About the Lions Clubs International
Lions Clubs International is the largest service club organization in the world. More than 1.4 million members in over 48,000 clubs are serving in 200 countries and geographic areas around the globe. Since 1917, Lions have strengthened local communities through hands-on service and humanitarian projects, and we extend our service impact through the generous support of our Lions Clubs International Foundation. We are focused on supporting vision, the environment, childhood cancer, hunger, diabetes, and other pressing humanitarian needs to help address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity. For more information about Lions Clubs International, visit lionsclubs.org.